Half-hour holiday at Allhallows

Five hours driving and six hours surveying an area of grazing marsh near Kingsnorth on the Hoo peninsula made for a very long day. Fortunately the journey down went smoothly and there was only a short delay at the Dartford Crossing. The rain held off, though by the end of the afternoon the sky was spectacularly black on the far side of the Medway and over Essex.

I always enjoy my visits to this area, as I don't often get to survey coastal habitats. Lots of interesting species were recorded including sea barley, annual beard-grass, stiff saltmarsh-grass, Borrer's saltmarsh grass, divided sedge and oak-leaved goosefoot. I'm afraid I upset a pair of lapwings and oystercatchers, by straying a little too close to their breeding area to take my monitoring photographs - but I retreated as quickly as I could and no harm was done.

We finished a bit after five, and decided it would be a very bad idea to head home at that time. So we looked at the map and decided to make a short trip to Allhallows-on-sea, on the north side of the peninsula, so that I could see Southend from the far bank of the Thames (many happy childhood days out were spent at Southend and Westcliff). We hadn't realised that most of Allhallows is a giant holiday park, but eventually found a place to park, and set off across another area of grazing marsh towards the sea wall.

Visiting somewhere new without having to write it up made me feel in a holiday mood - definitely a state of mind. The grazing marsh ditches and the grassland of the sea wall held many botanical riches, and the views were interesting - especially Grain power station and gas storage tanks lit up by the sun against a black sky! I quite like the incongruous mix of semi-natural habitats and industry that you find around the Thames and Medway estuaries - even though I also love to visit pristine wild areas.

I decided I wanted to post a coastal image as a reminder of the day. I quite liked a view along the coast towards a tiny white shell beach, with a bank of purple-flowerd common mallow in the foreground. But Alex liked this somewhat more subdued image of the Thames estuary looking out towards the North Sea, and I have to agree that it's very characteristic of the area. We enjoyed our walk a great deal, and I certainly felt refreshed after my mini-break - perhaps this is the way forward for busy people! I'd like to explore the area further but wouldn't want to stay at Allhallows!

Delaying our departure proved wise, and we had a very straightoforward run back to Peterborough, though the last half hour or so involved heading straight for the setting sun, which made it impossible to see the road ahead. Of course the sunset was glorious - a mad confection of orange and purple - but they always are when I'm on a motorway!